David Bridges
A way to easily steal certain types of vehicles has become a new social media challenge, and a D.C. woman who says her car was stolen is sharing her story to encourage other victims to come forward.
Nicole’s Hyundai Elantra was stolen from her neighborhood in Laurel, Maryland, last week.
Her car was found a couple of days later – the steering column ripped out, a window shattered. It’s still sitting in an impound lot waiting to get fixed
She learned just the day before that some Kia and Hyundai models can be stolen using a USB phone charger.
“Most consumers are not aware,” she said. “So, I have a ton of neighbors who have Kias and Hyundais. As I arrive to the parking lot, I worry that the same thing could happen to them this weekend.”
Videos on TikTok and other platforms that show how to do it. Many call it the “Kia challenge.”
“The police told me these are teenagers,” Nicole said. “They just want to drive in your vehicle. They get on TikTok and see it’s something easy to do and they do it.”
Nicole wants people who own those cars to know the risk. She also wants car companies to do something about it. There are ways to fix the problem, but it’s up to the owner to pay for it.
“I don’t want to pay anything; I don’t want to do that,” she said. “You guys should have installed these things before I purchased my vehicle.”
Nicole said if she’d known the car could be stolen with a USB cord, she wouldn’t have bought it.
She is out several hundred dollars so far for the deductible and other expenses, and she’s still not sure when she’ll get her car back.
“I don’t want it,” she said. “I don’t want it, because the police have let me know that it could possibly be stolen again and I possibly risk being dropped by my insurance.”
The only rental car she could get was a Hyundai, so she bought a steering wheel lock to prevent that car from getting stolen, too.
Maya Kensington
Sophie Langley
